10 Biggest IPOs of All Time

Alibaba aims for the top of the list of biggest IPOs

Two important numbers are swirling around yesterday’s Alibaba IPO filing. The first — $1 billion — is the fundraising target Alibaba set in its F-1 filing.

The second — $20 billion — is how large Wall Street thinks that raise could become.

We’ll figure out just how close to either figure the Alibaba IPO will get a few months from now, when the company prepares for its roadshow. But if Alibaba is close to that latter number, the Alibaba IPO would be the biggest U.S.-listed initial public offering ever.

Now, that $20 billion is far from guaranteed. After all, the IPO market has been in a funk lately. Oh, and Chinese-based deals have also come under pressure, as seen with Weibo (WB). Regardless, Alibaba will still likely be on the top-10 list of the biggest IPOs (here’s my take on the deal).

OK, so what are the other companies on the list? Well, let’s take a look:

Based in Silicon Valley, Tom Taulli is in the heart of IPO land. On a regular basis, he talks with many of the top tech CEOs and founders trying to find the next hot deals and finding out which start-ups are stinkers.

A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.

Tom is routinely quoted in the media about upcoming deals with his interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, but he is eager to take your questions too. You can message him on Twitter at @ttaulli. And feel free to weigh in via the comments section on any of his IPO Playbook posts.